Jeopardy, Consciousness, and Multiple Discrimination: Intersecting Inequalities in Contemporary Western Europe

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Jeopardy, Consciousness, and Multiple Discrimination: Intersecting Inequalities in Contemporary Western Europe Sociological Forum, Vol. 30, No. 4, December 2015 DOI: 10.1111/socf.12204 © 2015 The Author. Sociological Forum published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Eastern Sociological Society. Jeopardy, Consciousness, and Multiple Discrimination: Intersecting Inequalities in Contemporary Western Europe Catherine E. Harnois1 Theories of intersectionality argue that individuals with multiple minority statuses often face mistreatment that stems from multiple, interlocking systems of inequality. King (1988) refers to this phenomenon as “mul- tiple jeopardy,” and argues that those who experience multiple jeopardy often develop a “multiple conscious- ness”—an awareness of multiple systems of inequality working with and through one another. This study analyzes recent survey data to assess perceived multiple jeopardy and its relationship to multiple conscious- ness in the context of contemporary Western Europe. Findings provide support for intersectionality, as indi- viduals who hold multiple minority statuses are more likely than others to perceive having personally experienced multiple forms of discrimination, and are more likely to view multiple discrimination (discrimi- nation based on multiple social statuses) as a widespread social phenomenon. Controlling for other factors, personal experiences with multiple forms of discrimination (“multiple jeopardy”) are associated with greater multiple consciousness. Personal experiences with discrimination based on a single dimension of inequality (“single jeopardy”) also facilitate multiple consciousness, however, though not to the same degree. The con- clusion highlights the importance of intersectionality for future research and policy concerning discrimination. KEY WORDS: discrimination; ethnicity; Europe; gender; intersectionality; survey research. INTRODUCTION Over the past two decades, the concept of intersectionality has become increas- ingly central to sociological scholarship, as well as to social science research more generally. The particulars of how scholars understand and employ intersectionality vary, but, in general, intersectionality draws attention to the dynamic and contex- tual relationships among multiple systems of inequality, as they exist within and across multiple levels of society (Baca Zinn and Thornton Dill 1996; Berger and Guidroz 2009; Choo and Ferree 2010; Hill Collins 2000; McCall 2005; Weber 2010; Winker and Degele 2011; Yuval-Davis 2006). While numerous studies have demonstrated that intersectionality provides a valuable framework for understanding how intersecting inequalities structure disad- vantage and privilege, far fewer have investigated the social psychological claims central to intersectionality. Intersectionality theory argues that individuals who have multiple minority statuses often experience mistreatment that stems from mul- tiple, interconnected systems of inequality (Baca Zinn and Thornton Dill 1996; Crenshaw 1989, 1991; Hill Collins 2000; King 1988; Weber 2010). Intersectionality This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. 1 Department of Sociology and Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, P.O. Box 7808, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109; e-mail: [email protected]. 971 972 Harnois further posits that those who experience mistreatment based on multiple social sta- tuses often recognize it as such, framing their experiences in the context of multiple social statuses and multiple systems of inequality (Crenshaw 1989, 1991; Essed 1991; Guenther, Pendaz, and Makene 2011; Harnois 2014; Hill Collins 2000; King 1988; Risman and Banerjee 2013). Finally, intersectionality theorists have argued that those who experience mistreatment based on multiple social statuses often develop a broader understanding of intersecting social inequalities (Berger 2004; Hill Collins 1990; King 1988; Smith, Smith, and Frazier 1981). This study addresses the social psychological claims of intersectionality directly, asking two main questions. First, to what extent do individuals with multi- ple minority statuses understand their experiences with mistreatment in terms of multiple inequalities? And second, to what extent does membership in multiple minority groups, along with experiences of multiple forms of discrimination, facili- tate a broader awareness of intersecting inequalities? To answer these questions, I analyze data from the Eurobarometer Survey—a multicountry survey conducted regularly on behalf of the European Commission. While intersectionality was devel- oped primarily by women of color in the United States, the theoretical implications of intersectionality reach far beyond this particular context. Unlike any large-scale survey conducted in the United States, the 2008 Eurobarometer includes questions about multiple minority identities, multiple forms of discrimination, and most sig- nificantly, a question that asks directly about respondents’ perceptions of “multiple discrimination”—discrimination based on multiple social statuses. It represents one of the only existing large-scale surveys—if not the only large-scale survey—with which it is possible to assess the prevalence of perceived multiple jeopardy in any context, and its relationship to multiple consciousness. BACKGROUND Multiple Jeopardy and Multiple Consciousness More than 25 years ago, Deborah King’s (1988) article, “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,” challenged scholars and activists to rethink their approach to understanding and addressing inequalities of race, class, and gender. King argued that scholars and activists alike too often rely on a “monist” approach, which obscures the experiences of individu- als and groups who hold multiple minority statuses. Drawing on Albert et al. (1986), she described a monist approach as one that positioned a single inequality (e.g., race, class, or gender) as foundational to others, and that conceptualized sys- tems of inequality as occurring independently (King 1988:51). King argued that attempts to isolate the separate contributions of racism, classism, and sexism to African American women’s lives fundamentally misunderstood how systems of inequality operate and are experienced. She advocated for an alternative approach, in which systems of inequality were viewed as dynamically interacting with one another. King’s theory draws from the scholarship, politics, and everyday experiences of African American women, and documents that throughout history African Intersecting Inequalities in Western Europe 973 American women’s lives have been structured by multiple, intersecting systems of inequality. She introduces the concept of “multiple jeopardy” to describe the inter- personal mistreatment and structural disadvantage that result from African Ameri- can women’s multiple minority statuses. The term multiple jeopardy builds upon the “additive” models of inequality that came before (e.g., Beal 1970), and “refers not only to several, simultaneous oppressions, but to the multiplicative relationships among them as well” (King 1988:47). For King, and for much of the intersectional scholarship that has followed, “the intersection of racism and sexism factors into Black women’s lives in ways that cannot be captured wholly by looking at the race or gender dimensions of those experiences separately” (Crenshaw 1991:1244; see also Baca Zinn and Thornton Dill 1996; Bowleg 2008; Essed 1991; Hill Collins 2000). In addition to highlighting the experience of multiple jeopardy, King argues that African American women’s experiences with multiple jeopardy facilitate the development of “multiple consciousness”—an awareness of multiple systems of inequality, and an awareness of how these systems “work with and through each other” (Baca Zinn and Thornton Dill 1996). She posits that those who occupy mul- tiple marginal statuses, and whose lives are characterized by multiple jeopardy, have a unique standpoint, which facilitates an understanding of how inequalities work together to structure power and privilege. Drawing from the writings of Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, and others, King (1988:51) argued that historically, black women in the United States have been con- scious of multiple systems of domination and have understood these interacting sys- tems as “a primary influence on the black woman’s definition of her womanhood, and her relationships to people around her” (see also Hill Collins 2000; Smith et al. 1981; Wilcox 1997). While King’s theory of multiple jeopardy and multiple consciousness central- ized the experiences of African American women and focused on inequalities of race, gender, and class, more recent scholarship has used these concepts to examine a broader range of inequalities as they relate to a wide range of marginalized groups around the world. For example, Cooke (2001) draws on the concepts of multiple jeopardy and multiple consciousness to describe the “oppositional stance” of post- colonial Arab Muslim women, Ward (2004) uses these concepts to examine the experiences of lesbian women at a Latino health clinic in Los Angeles, and Madibbo (2007) applies these ideas to blacks in the Francophone communities of Ontario, Canada. In addition to the statuses of race, class, and gender, scholars have drawn on King’s theory
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